Re: the attempted Interiors commentary: "Just as a point of accuracy, Woody Allen's office signed off on the commentary - it was the studio that got cold feet at the last minute - a shame as the commentary was very supportive of the film and everything that it accomplished as Mr A's first dramatic endeavor." Via this post

Re: the attempted Interiors commentary: "Just as a point of accuracy, Woody Allen's office signed off on the commentary - it was the studio that got cold feet at the last minute - a shame as the commentary was very supportive of the film and everything that it accomplished as Mr A's first dramatic endeavor." Via this post

Redman might not be the most reliable source of objective information, but to me this is completely plausible. If the "no supplements" policy is actually part of a contract between Allen and the studio, then even if Allen's office approved the supplement for whatever reason, the studio's legal department might nix the possibility unless the contract were revised. And TT's whole business model is based around minimizing any effort whatsoever on the part of the studios licensing to TT, so they might think it's not worth it to re-draft the contract (especially since TT pays up front so the studio doesn't really care about whether TT sells more copies as a result of added-value supplements).

Nah, Redman sounds like he is trying to save face. Why would MGM get cold feet if the Allen folks approved the commentary, which they (Allen's folks) would most likely have relayed to MGM. With Allen being notoriously anti-supplements for his releases wouldn't all parties communicating be a priority.

Having been in the home video industry for 15 years I would absolutely believe a rejection by legal at MGM. I've seen some remarkably absurd reasons legal has rejected something on a release over the years.

You guys really believe they got to the announcement phase without clearing it with Allen? I know you guys see Redman as the devil and all, but do you actually think he's that obtuse? To me that simply strains reason.

This wasn't TT's first rodeo with Allen. Presumably they would have also gone through the same process to clear all the written material on their previous Allen releases, and Interiors, too.

Most likely to me is that TT tried to pull a fast one on Allen's people, sneaking commentary approval in with the approval for the written material, and got Allen's office to sign off on the commentary without realizing what they were doing. Then the announcement is made, shit hits the fan, and TT pulls it.

It's consistent both with TT's statement and Allen's (well-known and unlikely to change) aversion to supplements.

If that was the case I think Redman would have just said Allen's people got cold feet at the last minute rather than the studio. There's no reason to make the distinction otherwise, unless one has the conspiracy tinfoil hat on.

It sounds a lot better to say "those damned studio meddlers stopped us from giving you the best possible edition" than to say "we tried to go against the filmmaker's repeatedly expressed wishes and got caught." If it were anybody but Twilight Time* I would be reluctant to assign such a crude, face-saving motivation, but, well, it's Twilight Time.